In a continuing effort to improve the quality of shipping fruits, I, the inventor, typically hybridize a large number of peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, and cherry seedlings each year. I also grow a lesser number of open pollinated seeds of each of these fruits, usually to capture recessive traits. The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of nectarine tree, which has been denominated varietally as ‘Sugarred III’.
The present variety was hybridized by me in 1992 as a first generation cross using ‘Spring Bright’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 7,507) nectarine as the selected seed parent and an unnamed nectarine (unpatented) as the selected pollen parent. The fruit of this cross was gathered that summer, and the seeds were removed, cracked, stratified, germinated, and grown as seedlings on their own root in my greenhouse. Upon reaching dormancy the seedlings were transplanted as a group to a cultivated area of my experimental orchard located near Le Grand, Calif., in Merced County (San Joaquin Valley). During the fruit evaluation season of 1996 I selected the present variety as a single tree from the group of seedlings described above. Subsequent to origination of the present variety of nectarine tree, I asexually reproduced it by budding and grafting in the experimental orchard described above, and such reproduction of plant and fruit characteristics were true to the original plant in all respects. The reproduction of the variety included the use of ‘Nemaguard’ (unpatented) rootstock upon which the present variety was compatible and true to type.
The present variety is similar to its seed parent, ‘Spring Bright’ nectarine, by producing nectarines that are firm, mostly red in skin color, clingstone in type, and acidic in flavor, but is distinguished therefrom by producing fruit that is nearly full red instead of yellow in flesh color, that is larger in size, and that matures about twenty days later.
The present variety is similar to its pollen parent, an unnamed nectarine, by producing nectarines that are nearly full red in skin color, firm in texture, and acidic in flavor, but is distinguished therefrom by producing fruit that is nearly full red in flesh color instead of yellow, that is larger in size, that has a sweet kernel instead of bitter, and that matures about forty days later.
The present variety is similar to ‘Grand Bright’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,494) nectarine by having mostly globose glands instead of reniform and by producing nectarines that are nearly full red in skin color, acidic in flavor, and that mature in mid July, but is distinguished therefrom by producing fruit that is nearly full red in flesh color instead of mostly yellow, that is firmer in texture, and that has a longer harvest duration.